Dark Phoenix
Following the defeat of Proteus and the reunion of the X-Men, the entire team returned to the mansion. They soon received readings from Cerebro regarding two new and potentially very powerful mutants. The team was split up so each team could investigate Cerebro's findings. While searching for the mutant whose location had been pinpointed to a nightclub in New York City, Phoenix once again found herself in the throes of an illusion. This time she was at her own wedding to Jason Wyngarde. She snapped out of her vision in the middle of kissing Wyngarde … who was actually in the nightclub smooching on Jean. Before she or Cyclops can react to this, Dazzler, (the mutant found by Cerebro) comes out on stage and starts singing. Outside the club, Nightcrawler receives a phone call from Kitty Pryde, the other mutant detected in Chicago. She warns him that the other half of the team has been captured just as Nightcrawler is attacked by one of the Inner Circle's famous Pawn henchmen. Inside, Cyclops and Phoenix are also attacked by Pawns, who seem to have weapons specifically designed to negate their powers. With Dazzler’s help they defeat their attackers and the four mutants leave for Chicago to rescue their teammates. As they leave, Cyclops sees Jason Wyngarde on the street and notices that his shadow doesn’t match the outline of his body. In the Windy City, the team rescues Kitty as she is about to be captured by the Pawns from the Inner Circle as well, led by Emma. This strikes a chord in Phoenix, as she recalls that the Hellfire Club was the group of people featured in her illusions. With the help of Kitty and Dazzler, the team rescues their captive comrades while Phoenix and Emma have a psychic duel that seemingly kills the latter, weaker duelist. The team decides to rest before taking the fight to the Hellfire Club. They retire to Angel’s aerie in New Mexico. During this sabbatical, Phoenix takes off Cyclops’ visor to see his eyes. He is initially hesitant, but she tells him she can telekinetically stave off the other-dimensional energy that fuels his optic blasts. The couple enjoys a moment gazing into each other's eyes, but Cyclops worries over the amount of power Phoenix possesses and whether or not she can control it. The team infiltrates the Hellfire Club with Angel’s help. Soon after arriving, Jean is swept away into an illusion. As Wyngarde begins to escort Phoenix into the mansion's dining room, Cyclops is in hot pursuit. Suddenly he recognizes Wyngarde as their former enemy from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Mastermind. As he enters the dining room he is struck down by Phoenix’s energy blast. She declares that she is now the Black Queen of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. The noise of the attack sets off the impending battle as Storm and Colossus confront the club's leader and Black King, Sebastian Shaw, Wolverine fights the Black Bishop, Harry Leland, and Nightcrawler battles the White Bishop, Donald Pierce. After a quick battle the entire team is defeated, as the Inner Circle has had ample time to study the powers and fighting styles of the X-Men, but the X-Men had no clue as to what they were up against. Also, Wolverine is thought slain by Leland's gravity manipulation power, having plunged the X-Men's resident scrapper several stories below the initial battle to the sewers beneath the mansion. The Inner Circle shackles and disables the other X-Men's mutant powers, allowing them to live and witness the induction of their newest member. As the Hellfire Club toasts their new Queen, Wolverine rises from the sewers, vowing revenge. Wolverine dismantles Pawn after Pawn in the basement while the rest of the team is still trapped. Phoenix is still held under one of Mastermind's illusions. Cyclops attempts to reach Phoenix through the unique psychic rapport they share as lovers. As he enters her mind he finds the landscape and motif alarmingly similar to that of the Hellfire Club's Mansion. He finds Mastermind waiting for him in Jean’s mind and he challenges Cyclops to a psychic duel. The challenge is accepted and right away he finds himself at a severe disadvantage to Mastermind’s swordfighting and psychic manipulation skills. Cyclops calls him out and demands he stop his illusions and fight like a real man. Mastermind laughs heartily at his opponent's lack of realization and tells Cyke that he (Mastermind) is not responsible for any other action than the fencing, and that Phoenix's own mind is fighting against our hero. He is caught off guard by this announcement and is stabbed through the heart by Mastermind. In the physical world, Cyclops falls over from the shock of having his psyche destroyed. All in attendance believed Cyclops to have perished. However, he groans in pain at the last moment, helping them to realize he's still alive. Shaw reprimands Mastermind saying that his control over the Phoenix is not complete, since Cyclops is clearly kept alive because of his psychic link with her. The telepathic backlash of Cyclops' near-death results in Phoenix being forced into her correct frame of mind. Just then, Wolverine breaks into the room. Phoenix uses Wolvie's distraction to release the helmet holding Cyclops' optic blasts at bay. He quickly uses his powers to free the rest of the team and the tide soon changes in the X-Men's favor. As Wyngarde escapes, he believes he can still bring Phoenix back to his control and they encounter each other alone in the hallway. He quickly attempts to pull her back into the illusion, but she sees right through it and effortlessly tears his illusion asunder. She scoffs at his meager attempts (especially due to the fact that he no longer has Miss Frost's aid) to control such a powerful creature. She shatters the illusion he has created around himself to appear more handsome, and opens his mind to the true being that she really is. This shuts down his mind, killing him. As the X-Men gather in the Blackbird, the rising power within the Phoenix becomes much too destructive and powerful and she rips the jet to shreds with her psychokinetic powers. Amidst the death and chaos; she transforms into the Dark Phoenix. The Dark Phoenix then begins her short-lived, one-sided battle against the X-Men. As she tosses them around like rag dolls, she speaks back and forth with Cyclops. He questions her as to why she still remains in Jean's mind after her success in healing the M'Kraan Crystal. She tells him it is because she'd never dealt with emotion and senses before she inhabited the human body. She asks him why he cares if Jean survives, and he answers thusly: "Because I love her." Phoenix claims that she doesn't understand the definition of this particular emotional response and tells him that his answer is unacceptable. She attempts to destroy him once more, but as she brings him to the brink of death, the part of Jean that is still with the Phoenix stops her and takes the Phoenix into the vastness of space. She goes to a nearby solar system by the name of D’Bari and plunges herself deep inside its sun. A passing Shi’ar cruiser witnesses the attempted suicide. They believe it to have destroyed itself. The scanners on the ship show that not only did the Phoenix survive the impact, but she is gaining energy from the sun, feeding on it. After depleting the sun of all of its internal energy, the sun goes supernova and the force destroys all of the planets in the solar system including one that was inhabited by billions of lifeforms. The Shi'ar cruiser survived the blast by jumping into hyper drive as they discovered that the sun would explode. The starship returns after the devastation and attacks the Phoenix in retaliation for the destruction, hoping to avert another in the process. In the blink of an eye, Phoenix destroys the threat to her existence just as they are hailing the empress Lilandra in regards to what has just occured. Phoenix in turn, heads back for Earth. Category:Antagonists